ICH Documentary : ‘LIFE IN A FISTFUL OF RICE’

The ICH Division undertook a project on Documentation of Rice culture in Northeast region of India. For this, three states namely; Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland were chosen for the research and documentation. The imagination, cultivation, economy, and consumption of rice is constitutive to the cultural identity of communities across India. The ICH Division undertook an audio-video documentation of the intangible, cultural and material aspects of rice cultivation and its significance in various aspects of life in different regions of the Northeast, with special emphasis on Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam along with a publication (under process) for the same. The above documentary was entered for various international film festivals in the coming year. The six months of dedicated primary and secondary research and hard work reaped along with the rice of the region!

Due to the collective and wholehearted efforts of a young and talented Mr Tashi Gyamba (filmmaker) and his team and guidance and mentoring from Ms Nerupama Y. Modwel (Director, ICH) and Mr Surajit Sarkar (Associate Professor & Coordinator, Centre for Community Knowledge, Ambedkar University, Delhi) the result has been a well-made documentary. The documentary has entered for various international film festivals. It has already been selected for two of these, i.e. the Docs without Borders Film Festival at Nassau and Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival in California.

For the first time, INTACH’s documentary has applied for a certification and has got a ‘U’ certification from the governing apex body; Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which is remarkable. This certification will help the documentary to be screened at any public platform where viewer discretion is required. Also, any documentary/video-audio needs to be passed by the CBFC before it gets screened into the public domain.